News

2013-11-15

AFRICA/CONGO DR - Still instability in North Kivu: new attacks against civilians

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - The defeat of the M23, the main guerrilla group operating in North Kivu (eastern Democratic Republic of Congo), must not allow to forget that in the Congolese province at least 40 other armed groups are active (see Fides 4/11/2013).
Among them is the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) - NALU, a movement of Ugandan origin that has settled in the area, and which has recently be associated with a group of Al Shabaab Somalis, perhaps to threaten Uganda, which has long been a military contingent deployed in Mogadishu in support of the Somali authorities.
Some assaults committed against civilians in recent days in some areas of the province are attributed to elements of the ADF - NALU. According to a note sent to Fides Agency by the Coordination of Civil Society of North Kivu, on November 10 three civilians were killed in Watalinga by some men of the Ugandan movement. On November 12, in the village of Matiba in the territory of Beni, always the ADF - NALU rebels fired on a dozen farmers who were working in the fields. One person was killed and two were injured while one does not know the fate of the other sects.
Other murders in the area are attributed to the militia in Nyatura, one of several militias of "self-defense" that operate in the two Kivu.
Civil society calls on the Congolese authorities and the international community because, after defeating the M23, their attention is to be addressed to other armed groups that threaten the peace and stability of the area. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/11/2013)